The Visual Flow and the Interaction with Computers

Visual Flow can be defined as the amount of visual information that passes in front of the eyes per unit of time. There are studies over visual perception that concludes that the human eye integers the signals during a period of time of 120-125 ms [1]. Thereby, an image that moves remaining visible for a time lower that 125 ms will appear blurred. Nevertheless, following objects in movement with the eyes reduces the relative speed of the image with respect the retina [2]. An image can be displaced over the retina at 3 degrees per second, without losing acuity. The visualization speed can be augmented by means of conjugate eye movement (saccades or pursuit movements) [3]. The pursuit movements appears when the object moves at less than 100 degrees per second [4], then the eyes follow the movement of the object reducing the relative speed over the retina. During saccades, a rapid displacement of the visual axle between different positions is performed. Due that there is not visual feedback to guide the orientation of the eyes during the movement; the speed can be much higher, up 1000 degrees per second, although penalizing the visual acuity.